Some Wild Theories

Face of Jesus mysteriously found on an ancient coin!

In the middle ages this coin was misunderstood to be the face of Jesus. I have come across the two stories. One story is that both the rays that run from the head, and the rose on the reverse, were thought to be symbolic of the resurrected Jesus. The second story that I heard is that the rays coming from the head were thought to be the crown of thorns and that these coins were the ones given to Judas as the 30 pieces of silver. Why they thought the Romans would mint a special coin for Judas I do not know but such was the medieval mind!

In actually this coin is not Roman and it was minted long before the time Jesus walked the earth. It is a coin that was minted in Caria, Rhodes and is of the god Helios. The rays from the head stood for the sun because he was the sun god. The rose on the reverse was also a symbol referring to Helios. The coin is shown here is actually very small and weighs only 1.17grams. When the medieval stories were circulating the denomination of the coin they were referring to was much larger, a tetradrachm, which was about the size and weight of a shekel. There are various styles of these coins because they were minted over a long period of time

Gadara coin near Jesus during healing!

In the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 8:29) we find the story about the healing of two men possessed by demons that resulted in a herd of swine running off a cliff into the sea and drowning. In this Gospel the name of the city is Gadara. This particular coin is from that city and was minted in the year 29 AD. We know that Jesus cast the Moneychangers out of the Temple in the year 28 AD. So this coin was minted the following year.

The wild theory here is that the one one who minted this coin and the first person to hold this coin would have been in the city at the time Jesus passed by and therefore this coin was nearby.

My own Pontius Pilate Coin theory... (part 1)

The Pontius Pilate coin that is shown here has three heads of grain with one “head of grain” is standing upright and the other two are bowing down.

What if this coin is symbolic in nature?

Meaning, what if Pontius Pilate’s coin was a way of saying that there are three leaders in the area that used to be Herod the Great’s Kingdom: himself, Herod Antipas and Herod Philip? And that he (Pontius Pilate) is the most powerful of the three (one standing grain) and the others should be respectful (bowing) to him?

My own Pontius Pilate theory... (Part 2)

If the above is true could this coin by Herod Philip be a reply to Pilate? The Herod Philip coin shows a hand holding three “heads of grain” and they are all standing upright. Herod Philips response was that all three grain heads are standing tall and no one is bowing to anyone else!!

Of course this is all speculation since it is difficult to understand what a first century inhabitant of Judea understood the “heads of grain” to mean. But could they have been a reference to the passage in Genesis in Joseph’s dream where he sees one sheaf of grain standing upright and all the other sheaves bowing to him? If so it would have leadership connotations.